Guy Walters is the author of nine books, which include four wartime thrillers and the critically acclaimed histories Hunting Evil and Berlin Games. Frustrated at the enormous amount of junk history around, Guy sees it as his personal mission to wage war on ignorance and misconceptions about the past. Guy is currently working on a new history of the Great Escape, and is also studying for his PhD at Newcastle University. His website is www.guywalters.com and is @guywalters on Twitter.

The English village certainly is white, but it's not intolerant

I've never been a fan of Midsomer Murders – give me The Killing any day – but like most people I've caught an episode of this narcoleptic slab of pudding TV and found it mildly diverting when I don't have the energy to find the remote. A criticism often made about the series is the unrealistically high homicide rate – some 220 murders and counting – but many enjoy the show without overly concerning themselves with this lack of verisimilitude. (Besides, as any inhabitant of a village community would tell you, the potential murder rate in villages is far higher than it is in cities, but that is another story.)

However, one thing that Midsomer Murders has never been accused of is its supposedly inaccurate reflection of our multiracial society. We all know that English villages are almost entirely populated by white people, and the lack of differently coloured faces in Midsomer has never – to my knowledge – been remarked upon.

At first glance, it therefore comes as surprise that so much of a stink has been caused by the remarks made by the show's producer, Brian True-May, when he observed that Midsomer would not be an English village if it featured those who weren't white. "We just don't have ethnic minorities involved," he said. "Because it wouldn't be the English village with them. It just wouldn't work."

Mr True-May is of course quite right – Midsomer is indeed an accurate reflection of the racial profile of the typical English village, a fact that the Census will doubtless confirm. A few years back, I appeared on a Radio 4 programme called Off the Page hosted by Matthew Parris, in which the guests discussed whether the English countryside was still a 'green and pleasant land'. As two of my fellow guests were black, the discussion quickly focussed on whether black people were welcome in the countryside, and the conversation became a little heated. I maintained that they were, and that the looks black people receive when walking through a village like Midsomer were not necessarily hostile, but more likely ones of curiosity, because, yes, black faces are very very rare in English villages.

What I do find troubling about Mr True-May's comments is the suggestion that a lack of racial mixture is somehow desirable. "We're the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way," he said. "I'm trying to make something that appeals to a certain audience, which seems to succeed. And I don't want to change it."

These, of course, are the comments that have caused Mr True-May to be suspended from his job, because they seem to suggest that Englishness is indeed a white man's game. Although he admits that he is politically incorrect, I'm not sure Mr True-May meant to imply that non-whites should not be considered English, or indeed are incapable of behaving in what we regard as an English fashion.

But what Mr True-May does seem to suggest is that non-whites are somehow not welcome in his fictional Midsomer. Yes, shoehorning in a racial mix to keep some sort of watchdog happy would be ludicrous, but there is something distasteful about his use of the word 'bastion', which suggests a defence against an invasion, and that villages are the only places left in England in which Englishness remains.

However we interpret Mr True-May's remarks, the truth is that villages are far more welcoming of non-white people than many would anticipate, and it should be remembered that all-white does not equal bigotry. Two summers ago, a village fete near here was opened by Jon Snow, and I recall him remarking to me how shocked he was by the lack of coloured faces at the event. As I understood him, his implication was that black people were not desired in ye olde thatched West Country villages.

I think this view is mistaken. I've been living in Midsomer-style villages for some eight years, and there is far less racism prevalent than someone like Jon Snow would suspect. Yes, you hear the odd unpleasant remark from an intolerant older member of the community, but you hear that in cities, and in the main, most village inhabitants abhor racism as much as the most liberal denizen of NW5. The reason why so few non-whites live in villages is not because of hostility, but is a symptom of a sorry divide between races in this country that is caused by very deep social problems, and a politically correct mentality that supposes that people of different races should be encouraged to conduct cultural practices discretely.

Unlike in Midsomer perhaps, non-white people are far more welcome than they realise in England's villages. Mr True-May's show may represent the reality of an English village, but I wonder whether his comments reflect the views of the people who live in the real Midsomers.